Applicant is the owner of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,253,388 and 7,931,366. The invention disclosed and claimed in the '388 patent involved eyewear comprised of a pair of lenses, releasable connectors connecting the respective inner ends of the lenses, a pair of temple pieces pivotable with respect to outer ends of the lenses and a rigid strap attached to rear ends of the temple pieces including an arc-shaped base bridging the parallel legs. The strap was taught to be positioned below the lenses so as not to interfere with, for example, the hairdo of a user. The inner ends of the lenses were taught to be releasably secured to each other by connectors, preferably, by magnets. To position the eyewear, the lenses are first separated from each other and pivoted inwardly or outwardly. The strap is then wrapped around the back of the user's head and the lenses pivoted toward each other and secured together in the front of the user's eyes. The lenses were taught to be instantly separable to facilitate putting on and taking off the eyewear and instantly connectable for a secure and accurate fit. The disclosure of the '388 patent is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 7,931,366 represented an improvement over the '388 patent by calling for a telescoping segment located within the arc-shaped base of the eyewear's strap to selectively alter the length of the arc-shaped base for modifying the spacing between the substantially parallel legs of the rigid strap to adjust the strap to varying widths of a user's head. Although doing so greatly expanded the flexibility of applicant's eyewear enabling it to be accommodated by users of different head sizes, it was determined by applicant that its eyewear could benefit yet further by additional modification.
Because of the relative stiffness of the eyewear's strap, comfort was somewhat compromised as well as the ability to compactly store the eyewear when not in use. In addition, once a user employed the eyewear, there was no significant resistance for keeping the frame on the bridge of one's nose particularly if the user was to bend over or engaged in physical activity. Others, including applicant, have somewhat addressed this issue by providing a relatively flexible strap as an alternative to the strap taught in the '388 and '366 patents but such a strap would generally hanging on a user's neck offering little resistance to dislodgment of the eyewear noting further that the weight of the strap could often times pull upon the eyewear's temples and cause the lenses to lift at its bridge resulting in discomfort and possibly compromise vision acuity.
Is thus an object to the present invention to provide eyewear having the above-described releasable connector feature while avoiding the limitations of the prior art.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide eyewear having the above-describe releasable connector feature while still providing the user with a convenient means to apply and remove the eyewear while facilitating its firm application by providing a strap which can be conveniently shortened by a user in order to secure the frame where desired.
These and further objects be more readily apparent when considering the following disclosure and appended claims.